THE NEXT-DAY AFTER the Family-Day outing to the beach – was the first day of their final-term holidays. Paul drank coffee at the kitchen marble counter and levelling-up in his Dota-game.
It was Caroline’s DAY OFF – she was doing some gardening at the front lawn… her once-in-a-blue-moon hobby… unlike when Solomon was alive… and both were in-talking terms… where gardening was a weekend hobby for the Mr-and-Mrs-Walker.
Peter was upstairs in his bedroom… laughing behind closed doors – probably on the phone with Bella…
Downstairs, Paul was losing ‘focus’ in his videogame… thinking about his blind-girlfriend who ‘had ‘not’ called him last night – since they returned from South Beach.
Paul ‘wished’ Jane would call him often… just like Bella ‘does’ – to accompany his twin’s boredom…
He sighed to the thought of home-alone ‘boredom’ in the Walker House for the holidays… with the evening lockdowns-and-curfews…
… he decided he should ‘revise’ his past-terms lessons to ‘see’ where he ‘WENT’ WRONG – from being the #9th and to-drop to #11th … and ‘not’ achieving the projected Top-5 in the class test-scores…
… but right now – the videogames were… so-addictive…
-O-
An hour later, the wheelchaired Paul detected ‘movement’ in the house… Peter was coming downstairs…
… he wore his fave-McEnroe tee-shirt and track pants to hide his injured wounds… the devil wearing his robotic-arm was limping as… he went outdoors to Caroline…
Playing his Dota, he was ‘not’ bothered of-what went-on outdoors…
… soon he was distracted by loud-blaring noises…
…. the devil was mowing the front lawn…
Paul scoffed to the thought of Peter was ‘trying’ his cunning-antics to get ‘back into their mother’s good-books…
… as-he ‘was’ her only-son… who ‘does’ house-chores – while her-other Godzilla-son was ONLY GOOD to-mess-up – and make the house dirty-and-smelly…
-O-
Before noon, Peter and Caroline came-in to the air-conditioned indoors – Paul glanced at his sweaty-rubicund twin in high-spirits… limping to the fridge to get his coke…
… Paul ‘paused’ his Dota… to-notice the hairline-fractures on the wall… above the refrigerator…
… recalling the devil’s tantrum which ‘SHOOK’ THE HOUSE – during Hiro-and-Taros’ visit sometime-ago…
Peter returning from the fridge ‘caught’ his cripple-twin looking in his direction – he scoffed at Paul on his wheelchair, before he went to his mother… now-seated at the IKEA table, having iced-lemonade.
Paul resumed his game – eavesdropping on the conversation at the table…
… seated on his father’s chair, Peter cracked the coke-tab with his metal-finger of his black-robotic arm while narrating about his yesterday’s medical journey at the harbour…
“… Mrs Burnell said my injuries were ‘not’ life critical – to call for a chopper air-ambulance… so she told Coach Metcalf to send me to the island’s Nursing-post for treatment… and the cheap-skate school ‘only’ had the budget to hire a scooter…
“… and there I was… bleeding-out my ‘precious’ Golden-blood’ away on the road while… riding on a slow-assed scooter with Metcalf…
“… then… at the Nursing-post, they ‘patched’ me up… gave their ‘standard’ aspirin-and-antibodies… and sent-me off I go to Salmon Way beach – but too-bad… I can’t swim due to my injuries… so I followed my buddies to see the Quakkas...”
Paul ‘ignored’ his twin’s self-centred misadventure and focused back on playing Dota – but was ‘sentient’ again when Peter asked Caroline… ‘what’s for lunch’…
… Caroline let Peter to order his fave-Aussie pizza…
With his iPhone, Peter called the Perth-6000-Menulog hotline…
“Hello, can I ‘place’ a special order in my 8 sliced-Aussie pizza to my ‘own’ preference…? Hah, I can… fantastic! ASK THE CHEF… to put ‘less’ cheese and ham on the ‘other-4-slices’… IT’S MY BROTHER… we are worried about him ballooning-up with no-exercise… while like-a-Boss, sitting-about like a couch-potato and playing videogames all day… yes, one-egg for him, instead of 2 … yea-instead, he should be eating-salad, right-Chef?… yea…without any fatty-dressing to lose weight, right-to-the science you are…?”
Paul was horrified when HIS TWIN SAID THAT… and THEIR MOTHER too was ‘quiet’ – letting Peter to body-shame him…
… annoyed, he ‘left the kitchen to his windowless bedroom – slamming the door.
-O-
In his room, Paul was in tears and was disappointed that – ‘for the first time Caroline did ‘not’ defend him… by ‘shutting-up’ his ‘bully-twin…
‘… ‘has’ she given-up on me… and LISTENING’ MORE to that devil-twin of mine… why-Mom…? Is it because of your high-maintenance of me… in the times of your huge-debt left by Dad…?
‘… damnit-Mom, why do I eat a lot…? IS IT MY GENES – Dad-himself was on the plump-side… while you-and-Peter are slim-and-athletic… am I ‘following’ Dad-side of the family-tree…?
‘… but sorry-Mom… my weakness is I CAN’T STAND HUNGER… I ‘think’ of food in every-waking hour… I need to snack always even-though you scold-ME ‘NOT’ TO… but-I sneak-and-snacked behind your back… and-I’m ‘NOT’ SORRY-TOO that I ate because I was hungry like-a-wolf…
‘… can’t blame-me… maybe IT IS A DISORDER that I’m ‘always’ hungry –it is like a hungry-demon living inside of me… that I even-go to the extent of stealing-to-feed it… OR-ELSE – I feel pain-and-depression…
‘… its ‘burden’ is weighing-on me LIKE A CROSS… that I carry every moment…
‘… where, I even DON’T FAST during Lent… I ‘feel’ guilty-and-depressed as a Catholic while feeding ‘myself’ in that holy-season of FAST-AND-ABSTINENCE – but I did ‘not’ tell this ‘sin’ to Father Brown ‘during’ Sunday-confessions… so-am I’M ‘LYING’ to God-Himself…?’
Paul thought of his ‘first’ girlfriend OF THE OTHER-PERTH – Alicia Wong, who-had ‘spoiled’ him too to be a foodie’ like her – when she had invited him to eat-out… where he normally doesn’t ‘go-outside-his-shell’ – because of his wheelchair inconveniences…
… but she ‘gave’ him THE CONFIDENCE to ‘do’ so…
… and Alicia cared for him too… when she ‘scolded’ him for snacking during class-lessons – where-she taught him delayed-gratification of restrictions for his raging hunger – and due to that he ‘lost’ some weight while dating her…
… and lost even more weight when HE WAS DEPRESSED – when Alicia was lying on the hospital bed with an-irreversible coma… where he missed her-LOVE THE MOST when she was ‘dying’ from her-head injuries…
… so-much-so was his-love, as-he ‘defied’ the heaven’s judgement on her life – when he boldly went to ‘RESCUE’ HER SOUL from the grim-reapers…
Paul was ‘supposed’ to be ‘living-happily-forever’ with Alicia in the ‘other-Perth’ realm…
… but the devil had ‘other-plans’ in Egypt – that ‘abrupt’ the tweens matchmaking…
… so, when the devil ‘LOST’ HIS BATTLE of The Blood-of-Peter…
… Paul had ‘lost’ his-Alicia ‘again’ – when ‘his’ Chinese-girlfriend WAS ‘MANIFESTED’ into different-versions both on – Perthland… and now in-post-Treeton.
But Paul ‘still’ cherished Alicia – and she had a ‘spot’ in his heart despite… he ‘had’ lost her… and often ‘had’ sweet nostalgic memories of HIS FIRST-KISS in the dark cinema when they watched ‘Dumbo’ in the mall. She even took him to Matahari hair-salon… where he met Alicia’s mother Robin…
… who gave Paul a ‘similar’ hairdo – of her daughter’s TV drama fantasy Korean-idol.
-O-
The cripple-boy switched on his iPad for HIS ‘ESCAPISM’ into season-3 of his-and-Alicia’s favourite Korean drama…
… as he a needed-distraction for his HUNGER ‘STRIKE’ – BECAUSE he wanted-to skip lunch…
… so-to start his diet-plan – FOR LOSING HIS excessive weight.
… the last time he had ‘boycotted’ lunch was 2 MONTHS AGO – the day… Peter ‘treated’ them pizza… to celebrate receiving his robotic arm…
… on-that very same day Taro-and-Hiro… ‘LOST’ THE BLOOD-SAMPLES of the Cursed-trio – when both-the Americans became ‘victims’ of Hajji’s zombie attack…
-O-
Sitting in his wheelchair, he was halfway into an episode of his Korean series when Caroline called out…
“Poe! Come eat your lunch…”
“I’m ‘not’ hungry!”
… Paul shouted at the porous-room door of the windowless room which separates the kitchen. He next saw Caroline opening his room door … and walking toward him…
… she placed her gentle-palm on Paul’s cheek…
“… come my-Good-son, come… and eat with your-Mom…”
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Paul’s heart then ‘softened’… and his eyes welled-up… and the tween was no longer ‘angry’ with his mother…
He then followed her out…
… thus-ending… his less-than an hour ‘hunger strike’…
-O-
At the IKEA, table was Peter chuckling – as he too ‘invited’ Paul over…
“… Poe, you-silly drama-queen… I was ‘kidding’ just-now, hahaha… I DID ‘NOT’ CALL the chef…!
“… I’m not’ that evil, hehehe– I wouldn’t do such a thing to my FLESH-AND-BLOOD… am I right-my big-little brother, hahaha…?’
Paul scoffed in quiet…
… he knew Peter was ‘speaking’ in between-the-lines… to make HIM ‘FEEL’ GUILTY – that HE ‘MURDERED’ his flesh-and-blood, in Perthland…
‘… you devil… I had to do what I ‘had’ to-do – as the defender-and-protector of Perth…’
He parked himself at his dining table – witnessing his twin was seated in their dad’s chair… and was eating-out-of-the box with his fingers…
… and, ON PAUL’S PLATE… was his-share of 4-large-sized portion… and ‘that’ confirming that Peter HAD ‘PRANKED’ him…
… when the pizza was ‘a-normal' regular pie… with no health-based ‘unhealthy-ingredients’ subtractions…
Paul decided to eat ‘decent’… by ‘not’ using his fingers – but using his fork-and-dinner-knife, where he used it both as ‘a tong’ to take a slice of the pizza from the dinner-plate… and put it on a smaller side-plate…
… he wanted to eat-healthy too… by removing excess-toppings – and he began forking-out to the-side of ‘most’ of the ham-and-cheese…so-to eat a lean-and-low-calorie slice of pizza.
The vegan-Mom too joined her twin-sons at the table with a bowl of arugula salad… for her ‘family-time' – the crafty-son snaked-on to get into her ‘good-books’ by being ‘good’ to Paul…
Peter took his slice of his rich-topping of the pie… with his robotic-arm over-towards his twin’s face…
“Cheers-Poe! We’re having ‘our’ favourite pizza…”
… concentrating on his own-plate, Paul ‘ignored’ him… and did ‘not’ respond to his ruse-antics – ‘leaving’ Peter’s cyborg-hand hanging over with the pizza…
… chuckling, Peter retracted his arm to eat-the-slice…
“… ‘why’ Poe…? Why aren’t you still ‘not’ talking to me – I was ‘fooling-around,’ yea … there was no-chef on the phone just-now…”
Paul ignored him… as Peter crackled…
“… would-it be a sin… to deprive your intrinsic fat-cells to starve…?”
Caroline put her-foot down – to-cut him off …
“Peter! Shut your mouth and eat now… don’t talk!”
“… but-Mom… why can’t we have ‘any’ family-table conversations ‘like’ we used to before…”
“… just-shut-up… we don’t need ‘your-type’ of conversation on this table – and, don’t harass him and don’t ‘bully’ him… let Poe eat in peace, for Christ-sake…”
Paul sighed softly in thoughts…
‘… you don’t have TO DEFEND ME from your ‘other-son,’ Mom… I can take care of myself … even though the devil ‘underestimates’ me now by thinking that he’s ‘complete’ with his ‘bionic arm – but… I DON’T WANT YOU TO SEE IT…where just now, at the table…
‘… I could have easily grabbed his metal-arm and ‘electrocute’ him IN FRONT OF YOU… yea, metal-is a good-conductor of heat… it could have fried his-brain… with his ‘cooked-eyeballs’ popping-out from his-eye-sockets… dropping as his-added pizza-toppings…
‘… but by ‘DOING’ THAT – I ‘WOULD’ reveal my well-hidden superhero secret identity to you, Mom… and, you might ‘even’ faint at the sight-and-thought of ‘knowing’ that… I’m part of the Cursed-trio, ‘who' are the Defenders-of-Perth…
‘…or… I can do-it-too ‘WITHOUT’ EXPOSING my supe-persona… by the conventional-methods which you’re familiar-with that are like-of your ‘police-crime-scene’ – of-by stabbing the devil in-the-throat with my table-fork… and bleed-out his bloody Golden-blood tomato-ketchup on his pizza…
‘… yea, Mom – I’ve ‘DONE’ THE HORRENDOUS THINGS ‘BEFORE’ in Perthland… where I ‘killed’ the devil – with your’ gun…’
Peter looked at Caroline and snickered, as he licked his robotic fingers… still ‘wanting’ to size his-twin…
“Hey-Mom, we’re having pizza… where is the wine to go with the pie? Even Poe would want one-too because he didn’t have his the ‘last’ time… LOOK AT HIM – dining like a-Boss as-if he ‘is’ at Marciano’s fine-dining restaurant… using cutleries like a ‘cultured’ gentleman… come on Mom, that is an ‘occasion-itself’ to open a bottle… ‘we’ want wine…”
Paul grunted…
“Mom, I don’t want-any wine…!”
Peter scoffed…
“… eating with a knife-and-fork, come-on… like his blind-girlfriend ‘KNOWS’ WHETHER he eats like a gentleman or Godzilla…”
The aggravated-and-provoked Paul was about-to dive across the table TO ‘ATTACK’ – by gorge-out Peter’s eyes with his knife-and-fork to make him blind… but ‘refrained’ when…
… the shouting Caroline slammed her palm-hard on the IKEA table…
“Peter! You ‘behave’ yourself WHEN YOU LIVE under-this-roof! Is this ‘how’ you’ll behave in front of our guest later…?”
Both the tween-twins were puzzled… when they ‘HEARD’ HER – Peter then asked…
“… what guest…? Who is coming…?”
“I’ve invited Principal Harris over for dinner… you better be in your ‘best’ behaviour!”
“… huh, why… ‘what’ does he ‘want’…?”
Paul saw a fear-growing in Peter… as he began to-be-silent…
‘… ooo-yea you-devil – the Principal is coming FOR YOU – coz he ‘knows’ what you ‘did’ on your ferry-trip to Rottnest Island…’
-O-
Paul dressed up for dinner that evening – he wore his Sunday-best like his school-uniform when his headmaster who would-be arriving later…
… he left his bedroom to the kitchen – sensing that his twin was ‘not’ around… locked himself upstairs all afternoon.
The doorbell rang…
… Caroline came running down-the-stairs – she was DRESSED-UP in an elegant black dress which she had just-bought for the occasion… and wore a pleasant perfume too…
Paul saw his mother answering the door to let 2 uniformed Deliveroo staffs – who were carrying a lot of Thai-food-deliveries from the company van into the kitchen… and placing the cardboard boxes on the kitchen counter…
… his mother paid a cashless-transaction of $257 for dinner that evening… and also slipped a $20 tip for the speedy-delivery.
On his wheelchair, Paul helped her by setting-up A TABLE-FOR-4 – while Caroline transferred the food to-be presentable on her chinaware serving dishes…
… the IKEA table was soon set to its brim-of-space with delicious and streaming-hot food… just like a shot of a Korean-drama dinner scene – Paul was soon-salivating and his stomach growling looking at the sumptuous 8 dishes which Caroline had ordered…
… but have to wait for the guest – his principal…
-O-
Peter was still upstairs… while Paul parked himself in the living room playing Dota as he waited with Caroline – who on her off-day… was micro-managing her police-work on her phone.
At 6:15, Paul looked out of the window… seeing a black-Mercedes parking at the Walkers’ front gate…
… ‘not’ the green Volvo – where the principal delivered pizzas ‘not’ long-ago…
Caroline called out…
“Peter! Come-down…!”
Paul saw his mother greeting his principal at the door… and exchanged cheek-kisses…
… the cripple-tween ‘was’ AFRAID IF HIS TWIN saw ‘that’…
… as he ‘was’ protective of their mother – to let HER ‘NOT’ DATE other suitors since Solomon ‘passed-away’ 2 years-ago…
…or the consequences OF – ‘ANOTHER’ Queensland’s Great Barrier-Reef earthquake calamity… as-of the other-Perth.
Tom Harris was well dress-smart for the evening with his formal coat-and-tie… and he brought a bottle of Merlot. Peter who wore his sportswear attire limped-down the stairs… to cheerfully greeting the visiting-guest…
… Paul in his wheelchair was ‘studying’ his twin…
‘… from the devil, ‘who had freaked out after ‘knowing’ during lunch-time that – Harris is coming for dinner… he ‘had now put a jovial façade-face LIKE AN-ACTOR to get into the good-books of the principal…’
“…wow! Are we having a feast here…? Kudos-you’ve over-done yourself, Mom!”
Peter complimented and was first to be seated at the IKEA dining-table on his father’s chair. Everyone joined him as they sat and ate the spread of the spicy-shrimp Tom Yam Goong, beef Suea Rong-nai and green curry with coconut rice…
… while the vegan Caroline ate an appetizer of green mango-salad… main course of Thai pineapple fried-rice and tofu-satay with coconut-sauce… and a dessert of sweet sticky-rice cakes.
Their table-conversation started – when Harris told them that he had to get ‘travelling-paper’ to visit… after passing a few strict-roadblocks during the after 6 o’clock CURFEW LOCKDOWNS, due to the ‘zombie-epidemic’ – where Caroline then join-in… as she said that the perpetrator Hajji was a slippery criminal and was still at-large from the eyes-of-the-law…
… Paul was quiet as he knew’ that Hajji was using a-certain BLACKMAGIC to be ‘invisible’ – but could ‘not’ figure-out if his devil-twin ‘HAD’ A PART with the zombie-epidemic.
Then the attention went to Peter’s robotic-arm… while the ‘former’ one-armed tween showed off his grip of the knife while slicing the beef – and then he bragged-away... that he was making his tennis comeback at school in the next-term…
… the attention lingered-on, when Principal Harris commended on his excellent progress in his studies from the last-boy in class and to be #12th… where Peter boasted that he had ‘now’ an AI-device to coach him…
… Paul cringed as he thought the Harris would ask him about ‘why’ he had slacked in his final-term – but was glad’ when the topic changed to the SHS’ Family Day at the beach…
… the ‘only’ compliment Paul had was the healthy tan he got from his beach-trip… which made Paul bashful as the introverted-twin…
… it made him remember THAT DAY at the beach with Jane Wilson ‘yesterday’… where they both tanned in the sun… kissing…
… Paul was ‘aroused’ – and the ‘mutual-shared-feeling’ was internally-detected by Peter, who spoke-up to diss…
“… nah, that won’t last… when Poe’s cooped-up most of the time in the windowless-room… where-else, my healthy tan is because I regularly train-hard in my outdoor tennis-practises…”
The attention on the table went-back to the extroverted-twin… as Paul was ‘waiting’ for Harris to ask him about the ‘incident’ of the ferry-trip – where Peter ‘dove’ into the rough-sea to ‘retrieve’ his robotic-arm…
… but the conversation WAS ‘MORE’ to Quakkas of the Rottnest Island.
-O-
After half-an-hour, they had their dinner and small-talks… as Caroline hurried everyone to the living room after serving dessert of the sticky rice-cakes…
… it was a short-dinner, according to Paul where at… the Wilsons’ dinner-invitation they would-be at the table much-longer – WHERE THE ‘ADULTS’ SPOKE – and the cripple-boy at the table would ‘gather’ intel…
They had the balance-bottle of wine at the living-room – where Harris even had poured 2-half glasses for the tween-twins… but Paul declined the offer… and the greedy-Peter ‘grabbed’ both of the glasses…
‘… huh… Principal Harris OFFERING HIS students wine…? There is ‘something’ going on with the ‘adults’ – even mom is ACTING ‘WEIRD’ like she ‘had’ invited him with a ‘purpose’… are they WANTING TO SAY… that they are planning to ‘get’ married…?’
But Paul’s assumption was ‘wrong’…
… Harris acted as A ‘MEDIATOR’ on behalf of their mother… when the principal told the twin that Caroline is in DEEP-FINANCIAL PROBLEMS from the banks-and-insurance companies due to the MASSIVE GAMBLING-DEBT left by the late Solomon…
… where the debts were over 5-million-dollars… where-else the collateral of the Walkers House was only estimated at $3.4 million and… the usury debtors were coming after Caroline to take her to court to sell the house…
Peter protested…
“Even if mom decides to sell the house – how can ‘our’ house be this bloody cheap…? Those ‘cheaters’ are ‘wrong’… it can’t be worth ‘ONLY’ 3.4 MILLION… ‘my’ house is worth more – probably it is worth ‘over’ 10-15 million…”
Paul face-palmed as Peter was making a ‘fool’ of himself after consuming some-wine… and was even arguing with his principal with no-basis of pragmatism of reality of the Walkers’ household…
… Paul understood his mother’s financial predicaments of paying monthly interest-rate for the $1.6 million difference… on her mere-salary of a police-inspector of Perth – unlike Caroline of THE OTHER-PERTH, she had a ‘promotion’ to detective-inspector with a pay-bump… when she ‘solved’ the crime-spree case of the most-wanted criminal, Hajji…
‘… anyways, to pay-up for dad’s 1.6 MILLION DEBT was mammoth task-of-earnings to shouldered… and it WOULD ‘NOT’ be settled even ‘after’ mom retired from the police-force – and, the ‘only’ solution was … TO SELL the house… and go-rent elsewhere…’
Harris was explaining to Peter that his late-architect-father had built the Walker-house in the middle-income residential area… where the estimated worth of the property was $3.4 million. Harris gave a comparison to other affluent areas where the property values were higher, even with a smaller built-up area – giving an example of the Wilsons’ residence… that was worth more than $6 million even though it was a smaller-house than the Walkers…
Paul saw his twin was dumbfounded and baffled – by the adult’s explaining the reality of ‘what’ he was ‘unaware-of’ in the grownup-world…
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The barking dog broke his ‘reveries’… as Paul came back to the reality as he caught-himself levitating in front of the full-mirror in his bedroom, He was wearing his tight-long pants uniform while… ‘still’ staring at his reflection of his past term holidays’ events…
… he then sat on his wheelchair – and was mentally-SET TO GO OUT to his first day of SHSs’ schooling new term…
… he opened the room-door and poured a cup of black coffee at the kitchen counter – realising that his mother and his twin were ‘still’ upstairs.
He got a miscall from Gary Morrison, his Uber driver – who was around the ‘corner’… in haste, the cripple-tween then ‘multi-tasked' of drinking his hot coffee and feeding-his-dog…
… before to-be THE FIRST-ONE – to leave the Walkers house that morning…